A public meeting will be held in Stark’s Park tonight (Thursday) to set up a new charitable organisation that will use the name of Raith Rovers to carry out community work in and around the Kirkcaldy area.

The objective of the Raith Rovers Community Foundation is to use the power of football to support community development and initiatives to help improve the lives and environment of local people.

The development is supported by the club and the SPFL Trust, which has given a grant to form the new charity and to employ a part-time community programme co-ordinator to deliver the work.

Tom Phillips, the Raith director chairing the working group aimed at getting the Foundation off the ground, said: “This is an exciting development for Raith Rovers.

“Many senior football clubs in Scotland have some form of charity, which, although separate from the club, they support to deliver activities that benefit the local area.

“This allows the Club to give something back to the area that they operate in and draw their supporters from. Until now Raith Rovers really did not have the resources to do this type of work and, in the past, we relied exclusively on volunteers to do so.

“The grant from the SPFL Trust allows us to not only establish the charity but also to take on a programme co-ordinator who can drive forward the projects that we want to get up and running.

“Community Foundations linked to other senior clubs in Scotland are involved in many different initiatives ranging from youth work project, to community based IT courses for adults to health and well-being programmes for overweight, over-forties.

“It all depends on the area and the needs it has that the charity can help to address.”

The public meeting to establish the group will take place in the Raith Suite in Stark’s Park tonight at 7.00 p.m. Anyone interested in the Foundation, or wants to know more about what is proposed, is welcome to attend.